How do you breastfeed and work?

Jennifer - posted on 05/31/2010
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My baby is 25 days old, I had him on a Thursday May 6 and was back to work May 17. I have the luxury of going to work for a couple hours and then going home to pump and feed him, and then going back for a couple more hours. I won't have that luxury for very long, my work will expect me to get back to normal hours very soon, and I don't know if I can handle that! How do you keep the milk coming in if you can't feed or pump for that long? I feel really guilty and don't know what to do! Any advise will be helpful!

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Mary - posted on 05/31/2010

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I'm sorry you had such a short maternity leave. How many hours do you work a day? Can you work out with your employer taking out time to pump. I have been pumping once in the morning, at lunch and once in the afternoon. I also pump after her morning feed, and when my daughter was younger I sometimes would pump at the end of my work day while doing paperwork. www.kellymom.com has good info on pumping, but the biggest obstacle is getting the time from your employer to pump. I would recommend trying to pump every 3 hours if you can, but not going longer than 4.

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Arianne - posted on 06/02/2010

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I've been working and breastfeeding now since my son was 2 months old && he is now almost 8. I use my lunch breaks to pump and I have a duel pump, so I can pump both breasts at the same time. It's a Medela pump n'style. My boss lets me take an extended break to pump. I wish I would have started pumping before I went back to work though because I have to pump before the shift have enough milk.

Sal,Where are you located? I am in the US and I believe here the laws vary by state. As far as I know in Ohio (the state that I live in) there is no such protection, I was just lucky to have an employer that was willing to work with me.

Jennifer--kellymom is great. There's a great chart on how long it's okay to store breastmilk too.

Legally your work has to let you pump when ever you require to do so and pay you during that time! They are called paid lactation breaks and they need to provide a fridge so you can store your pumped milk safely. I did this for 1 year.